Swapped Out
by purplecitrusella
Summary: Why weren't the palette swaps present in the memory restoration scene? Here's one imagining. Oneshot for now, but may expand.
1. Swapped Out

_**A/N: This is my first WIR fanfic (though I have been RPing for a bit in the fandom). It's not my best specimen of writing, and it's not the longest, but I hope you like it.**_

_**It's based off a headcanon by pink-palette-swap on Tumblr (at least, I think it was hers; I don't remember and can't find it). The headcanon is that the reason the recolors aren't in the final scene where the racers get back their memories is because they were unlockable characters who were reset to their locked state when the game reset.**_

_**So, yeah. Enjoy.**_

* * *

It was a dark day in Game Central. Hundreds upon hundreds of candy citizens, NPCs, and sugary racers huddled in small groups dispersed throughout the hulking power strip as tons of characters from other games looked on, upset and confused at the commotion that was the station.

The ice queens had gotten together, talking quietly about what they would do when this was all over. The boys were in another corner, switching between sharing their feelings about this sudden event and discussing ways to comfort the scared girls, a segment of conversation headed by Swizz. Other groups of racers and characters convened, some reassuring each other and themselves, others speaking of things like slumber parties and kart parts to get their minds off the tragedy that had unfolded.

The palette swaps had all been separated from each other, so unlike the other racers, they were dealing with the unexpected event in a singular and individual way. Citrusella was just thankful she had found Sticky, for she hadn't seen the girl since before the roster race was scheduled to begin. She learned that Sticky had seen cybugs, something she knew not to be part of the game, gathered near her house. Upon seeing them, she had bolted from the game, fearing that something very bad was happening. It had turned out she was right, for not much later, a mob of Sugar Rushians came out of the outlet—everyone in the game, in fact, save two characters: one the game's ruler and the other a glitch. Sticky related the entire story to Citrusella, and Citrusella followed suit, telling things from her side. When Citrusella was almost done with her story, the two grew quiet as an event at the outlet caught their attention.

The "Do Not Enter" sign—a sign usually reserved only for unpluggings or removals—had finally stopped flashing above the entrance to the game Sugar Rush.

The entire station's breath collectively hitched as the sign then changed to being entirely blank, as if there was nothing plugged into the outlet at all. A couple Sugar Rushians began to cry, afraid that their home was now gone forever.

Most everyone breathed a sigh of relief as the sign slowly flickered back to life with a new message: "Pause for authorization for reentry."

The Sugar Rush racers and all the candy people waited restlessly, anxious to return to their game, as Surge briefly checked over the outlet and cord, teleporting himself shortly to the game end of the cord and coming back in a matter of seconds.

"All clear for reentry. This game is reopened," he said, bored.

The crowd cheered. Candy people began to pour back into the game at alarming speed, racers dispersed among them.

And as they crossed the line from the cord and into the portal of the game, that was when something seemed to have gone haywire.

Sticky and Citrusella were the first in, so they were the first to feel it.

Their bodies began to rise into the air, freezing in place and flashing as they seemed to have somehow collapsed in on themselves, technically speaking.

And as it happened, they screamed in pain. Their pixels felt as if they were being ripped apart bit by bit, polygon by polygon.

They were.

Their bodies and minds were being converted to raw code.

It looked curiously like Vanellope's glitching. They wondered if this was how she felt when it happened.

They hoped it wasn't happening to all the racers, and they were simultaneously relieved and frightened when they saw that it wasn't as the racers ran past them without a second thought, appearing to be headed toward the main track. Sticky and Citrusella were glad nobody else seemed to be experiencing this pain, but they were rather concerned because it was as if the racers couldn't even see them.

Their thoughts turned to terror and their eyes widened as they looked to each other and then down the power line, where they saw Torvald and Nougetsia cross the portal.

They wanted to yell out, to scream "No! Go back," but their voices had been taken, sucked away with their quickly diminishing code. It was too late as the mysterious force took the other two swaps as well.

The girls could only look on each other in horror, hoping that the mysterious force would release them. And when it did, they would have a laugh and gear up for a third roster race, one that would go off without a hitch this time!

But it was very clear that that was not what would happen here. Each of their bodies was losing abilities fast, and it was obvious they would not live to see another roster race anytime soon.

They continued to stare at each other, using their faces and eyes to relay messages they were unable to speak. "I wish I could have stopped you." "I'm sorry." "It's okay." "You're my best friend." "I love you." They stared for a long while, their eyes telling stories when their mouths could no longer, until one by one, each of them had their vision sucked into the depths of their code, blinding them.

They all remained frozen, unseeing, unmoving, and silent, able to feel nothing but pain as their bodies disintegrated and were fed into the belly of the game.

Soon there was nothing left, and the girls had been transported to darkness, to be seen again only when their characters were unlocked.


	2. Dark to Light

_**A/N: Oh, lookit, it's not the oneshot I thought it'd be!**_

* * *

Darkness.

Horrible. Soul-sucking. Darkness.

One might have thought that it was some sort of crashed game, or the product of an empty outlet (or perhaps someplace in the depths of Mammoth Cave during that part of the tour where they turn off the lights), at least from this creature's perception.

From the outside, however, it was quite clear it was a code room. Thousands upon thousands of boxes glowed in purple and pink hues. A few dull, gray boxes were dispersed through it, boxes for content that had been dummied out, like Diet Cola Mountain.

And in one corner, shining in an unassuming off-white, a cluster of code boxes sat, seemingly inactive. These were for code that was yet to be unlocked. And at the center of it sat four recolored racers: Sticky Wipplesnit, Torvald Batterbutter, Nougetsia Brumblestain, and Citrusella Flugpucker.

Though imprisoned as code in the confines of the box, these racers still felt some modicum of sentience. Their world was dark and they could feel little. They could not truly communicate, and their worlds were simultaneously quiet and deafeningly loud. They were privy to just about everything happening around Sugar Rush, but lacking access to any sort of higher thinking process, they couldn't analyze or single out any one piece of information, so it all came across as a sort of unintelligible background noise, like a fan or a buzzing bee.

There the code boxes sat, seemingly inactive, waiting to be brought to life.

* * *

Vanellope sped her kart forward, but Taffyta and Rancis pulled off their usual maneuver of getting their karts close together, rendering the space in front of them inaccessible to anyone directly behind them.

The three crossed the finish line, resulting in a placing order of Rancis, Taffyta, and Vanellope. Soon after came Jubileena, Snowanna, Minty, Swizzle, Candlehead, and Adorabeezle.

"Great roster race, guys!" Vanellope cheered. "And I'm sure you two will be on there tomorrow!" she smiled at Gloyd and Crumbelina who soon returned her smile with their own.

Life couldn't be any better in Sugar Rush since the cybug incident. Vanellope made a great president, no one person was held up as more important than anyone else, and all eleven racers were safe and well-adjusted.

It seemed that nothing was missing to the racers and citizens. The world was their oyster.

But to anyone from the outside who had looked for more than two seconds at the racers before the incident, something was indeed missing.

* * *

Moppet Girl walked with a bounce in her step to the Sugar Rush cabinet just as a little girl was walking away from it, complaining about how she hadn't seen her favorite character, Batter-something-or-other, on the roster in ages. Moppet Girl eavesdropped, more out of force than choice, before sitting down in the racing seat. She didn't share any of the same qualms as the girl, but then again, she hadn't played that long and had perhaps missed a few racers here and there or something, though she had thought she'd seen each and every one of the racers.

She paid her fee, pressed start, and moved the selector to her favorite racer, Vanellope. She was about to select her when something made her change her selection to a certain red racer.

"JUBILEENA BING-BING!" The girl onscreen jumped excitedly, screaming "Oh, yeah!"

* * *

Moppet Girl and Jubileena were a magnificent team as they tore through the tracks. They demolished the Sweet Ride, Cakeway, and Frosty Rally tracks. Sped through Haunted Hollow, Snow-Cove, and Peanut Butter Paradise. Crushed the competition on Tiramisu Turnpike, Emmareld City, and Twisted Swizz-ster. Wiped out anyone who dared race on Jubileena's own track, Cherries Jubilane. Now all that was left was the game's namesake track, Sugar Rush.

Meanwhile, deep within the recesses of the code, a code box began to tremble, showing a bit of its sentience, yearning to reach out to the world above.

* * *

"Last game!"

Moppet Girl was on fire, and she and Jubileena had conquered the Sugar Rush track. And just when Moppet Girl had thought she'd played every track, about to get up at the "last game" call, the game loaded up a track claiming to be Vanellope's, Royal Raceway.

She stared for a few seconds, confused. The name made sense, but she'd always thought Sugar Rush was Vanellope's track, though it never said so in-game. This "Royal Raceway" wasn't selectable at all from the main track selection.

In reality, she'd triggered a rather rare event. Royal Raceway, the longest track in the game, the one used for roster races, was only open for races in certain circumstances. And the player for that session beating every track with no continues was one of them.

Moppet Girl's confusion started to melt away as a short cutscene played of Vanellope spinning to change out of her hoodie and into a white racing suit, as if this were some special occasion. She skipped over to her kart, and the cutscene ended.

The race started, and Moppet Girl and Jubileena were off.

* * *

Within the confines of the code vault, a single code box began to glow just a bit brighter than the others…

* * *

A very long seven minutes later, with a few kids and Litwak gathered around the game, Moppet Girl and Jubileena crossed the finish line. The kids cheered and Litwak congratulated the girl as the trophy descended, Litwak ushering the kids who had been lingering toward the door. Moppet Girl watched Jubileena's winning animation before getting up and heading toward the door, herself.

* * *

The black pit where the programming resided illuminated itself in shocking pinks, electric purples, and stark whites. A far corner of the room was seeing much more activity than it ever usually saw, one box within it shining a blinding, pristine white. The other boxes around it expressed concern, their limited feeling giving them an unclear picture of what was going on. The concern turned to worry as the light died down, a now purple code box migrating into the throng of active code, drifting away and disconnecting from the other boxes' small circle.

* * *

Mr. Litwak had just locked the door when the game announced its news.

"NEW RACER UNLOCKED!"

* * *

_**A/N: Was it a good idea to continue this? Do you like it? Do you wanna criticize it? I'd love a review, whether you liked it or hated it.**_

_**Jubileena's track name courtesy of flyingpochama948 on Tumblr.**_


End file.
